Colleagues pray for Jezza to cut his losses when his four Es fail to kick in

‘There were enormous challenges to the economy, Hunt began. Yes, and most of them self-inflicted by the Tory party.’ Photograph: Reuters

You need charisma to pull off a good con trick. To lull your audience into suspending disbelief. A sleight of hand that makes everyone look elsewhere while the economy stalls and the country suffers its worst fall in living standards since records began.

And Jeremy Hunt has no presence. More an absence. A vacuum where personality is normally found. So for an hour he died on his feet at the dispatch box. Luckily, he didn’t seem to know a thing about it.